Here there is a little list to compare both of this attractions!
Empire State Building
- Location: Fifth Avenue, NYC
- Price: $27.00 USD
- View: Downtown Manhattan (1 WTC), Metlife Building, Chrysley Building, New Jersey and The Hudson River.
- Other: this building has security bars. You can go whenever you want between 8am and 2am (The last elevator goes up at 1.15am) Tickets are valid for a hole year since the day you bough it, you can go whenever you want! (date and time) And it opens every day! 365 days a year! What I love from this building is that every night it has a color of it's lights in honor of someone or something, it's beautiful. One last thing is that with the price I mention you will be able to go to the main deck (86th floor), there's the Top Deck at the 102nd floor but you need to pay extra to go up there. New York Skyline - Empire State Building POV
Top of the Rock (at Rockefeller Center)
- Location: at the GE Building.
- Price: $27.00 USD
- View of: Central Park, Upper East Side, Metlife Building (a little bit of the Chrysley Building), Empire State Building, New Jersey and The Hudson River.
View of Empire State Building
View of Central Park
- Other: Top of the Rock has a security glass, not bars like the Empire State Building. Other thing is that you need to say at what time you are going to go up! Another thing is that you can go to the 2 upper levels that the observation deck has for free! It is open from 8am to midnight (last elevator goes up at 11:00pm) 7 days a week, the timing tho can change on holidays.
I personally love Top of the Rock, it has an AMAZING view, this does not mean that the Empire State Building doesn't have one but, you can watch literally the hole island (hahaha not that much!) but you will be able to see its most iconic buildings (like the ESB).
A tourist guy recommend me to go up at night so I did; it's beautiful and so romantic but I definitely fall in love with the view during the day at least with the view that Top of The Rock "gives" you, it's a beautiful contrast that Central Park provides to the city.
Even so, in both of this observatory decks you will be able to watch an amazing view, it's up to you to chose one of both of them!
Good luck, and have an incredible trip!